Sikorsky S-76

The S-76 carries offshore workers and executives, and its US record since 2008 is short but heavy. Up to 28 October 2026, four fatal accidents in the United States since 2008 count toward its score, with 21 deaths, in about 2.3 million flights. Two were passenger flights that killed eight and nine people.

What is the S-76, and who flies it?

Sikorsky designed the S-76 in the 1970s for the offshore oil industry and corporate flying, and first flew it in 1977. It has two turbines, a four-blade main rotor, retractable wheels and seats for about 12 passengers in offshore layout, fewer in an executive cabin. About 875 were delivered, in versions from the S-76A to the S-76D. Sikorsky, now part of Lockheed Martin, took its last orders in March 2022.

In the US it shuttles crews to Gulf of Mexico platforms for operators such as PHI and Era, and flies companies and wealthy owners. It is usually flown by two pilots offshore, while charter and private flights may have one. The FAA register held 195 in 2008 and 151 in 2026.

How the score is built

We count fatal accidents in the United States since 2008, from the NTSB database. Offshore flights in the Gulf of Mexico count. Flights come from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey, split between types by how much each type flies, mostly from airframe hours in NTSB accident records and partly from hours per aircraft seen by ADS-B receivers (OpenSky, 2019 to 2022), then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021). The average S-76 flies about as many hours as the average twin, on longer flights.

Four accidents leave a wide likely range, and confidence is low: the type's own record carries about four-fifths of the weight and the class record the rest. The S-76 sits just behind the H130 and a little further behind the Airbus H145 and H135, and ahead of the AW109, the Bell 429 and the AS355, though the likely ranges overlap. See our method and the helicopter ranking.

The four accidents

Of the four, two were passenger flights, one a positioning flight and one a work flight, a check after maintenance. By occurrence type: a bird strike, a loss of control, a system failure and a flight into terrain.

4 January 2009, near Morgan City, Louisiana. Seven minutes out of Amelia for an oil platform, a PHI S-76C++ hit a red-tailed hawk. The bird broke the windshield and knocked both engine controls back, and the crew could not recover before it fell into a marsh. Eight of the nine on board died.

15 March 2013, near Grand Lake, Louisiana. On a check flight after maintenance from Lake Charles, a tail rotor blade of an Era S-76A++ fractured and flew off. The helicopter came down steeply and burned; the pilot and both mechanics died.

26 January 2020, Calabasas, California. Flying Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others from Santa Ana to Camarillo, the Island Express S-76B pressed on into low cloud; the pilot became disoriented and it hit hills. All nine died. The NTSB also faulted the operator's safety oversight.

10 July 2026, near Huntersville, West Virginia. Positioning to collect its owner, a Waco Oil & Gas S-76D flew low along a valley under a fog ceiling of 100 to 200 feet and struck a mountainside short of the landing zone. The pilot died. The NTSB has not given a cause yet.

The two latest accidents both began in low cloud or fog with one pilot at the controls. The earlier two came from a bird and a broken tail rotor blade.

What to ask before a charter

• Ask for the operator's Part 135 certificate and whether the flight will run with one pilot or two.
• Ask what the operator's weather minimums are and who can cancel a flight. At Calabasas, the flight continued into cloud under visual rules.
• Offshore workers: do the underwater escape training, and wear the life vest and the emergency breathing device you are issued.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show S76. It has a long, streamlined nose, wheels that fold into the body and a four-blade main rotor. The Bell 212 and 412 are boxier twins on skids.